Aelyria

Aelyria (formerly Alleria) is a website. Founded on June 2, 1989, over the American online service Prodigy, Aelyria's current online database (according to its site) features 1.3 million posts since 2002 and counts 70,000 registered users, and hundreds login daily as of May 2015.[1]

Aelyria
Type of site
Role-playing game
Available inEnglish
OwnerPlay by Post LLC
Created byJuan Gonzalez
URLwww.aelyria.com
RegistrationFree, required
LaunchedMay 1996
Current statusActive

Description

In Aelyria, players assume the roles of heroes and villains by posting stories about their characters over online message forums and bulletin boards. Each forum represents a geographical location in a fantasy world and each player posts action in the third-person past perspective, while a volunteer moderator posts a response to help narrate the story. According to its users, both the original game world and ongoing epic storyline have been continuously developed since Aelyria's inception in the Summer of 1989.[2] The Aelyria medieval fantasy world is influenced by fairy tales, folklore, mythology, and ancient history, but can be considered as belonging to the high fantasy genre of fiction given its Dungeons & Dragons-like mixture of magic, adventure, and intrigue. However, in recent years, some slight elements of steampunk have occurred as part of an organic historical progression.

History

Play-by-post role-playing games are a cult phenomenon with a niche following. Tracing its origins to various bulletin boards on Prodigy in 1989, Aelyria experimented with a Usenet newsgroup in 1993 and eventually put up an informational website in 1995. In 1996, the web site was redesigned and launched using its previous name, Alleria, at Alleria.org and later Alleria.com.[3]

In 1997, Aelyria received global publicity with two major developments:

  • In the summer, Aelyria was featured among other "cool sites" on MSNBC's then-popular cable television Internet culture show, The Site.
  • In the October 1997 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, Aelyria was mentioned in an off-topic segment entitled "Editor's Web Picks".[4]

Aelyria is a commercial web site owned and operated by Play by Post LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company. It files annual reports with the State of Delaware. Play by Post LLC currently has a design studio in South Boston, Massachusetts, a corporate office in Boston, Massachusetts, and operating headquarters in Delaware.It presently employs less than ten people.[5]

The name Aelyria is a Registered Trademark of Play by Post LLC, and is trademarked with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.[6]

See also

References
  1. Traffic statistics from http://www.aelyria.com/forums%5B%5D%5B%5D
  2. Aelyria - FAQ: Overview Archived 2008-03-31 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "About Aelyria", http://www.aelyria.com/forums/players/74846-about-aelyria.html Archived 2008-04-03 at the Wayback Machine. Last Accessed May 18, 2008.
  4. "Editor's Web Picks", Electronic Gaming Monthly. October 1997 Issue.
  5. Play by Post LLC 2006 Annual Report, filed September 2007.
  6. USPTO Serial No. 77258735.
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